Grandad’s priceless reaction as watch he bought for £35 is worth £40,000

A grandfather was left dumbfounded after finding out the watch he bought for £35 is worth up to £40,000.

Roger Cooper, 71, spent almost a month’s wage on the Omega Speedmaster ‘Ultraman’ while serving in the Merchant Navy in Hong Kong in 1968.

Fast forward fifty years and the retired seaman discovered it had jumped 885 times in value during an appearance on BBC’s Antiques Roadshow.

It’s believed only 50 ‘Ultraman’ watches were made in 1968. The watch earned its nickname after featuring in a Japanese TV superhero series The Return of the Ultraman in 1971.

Mr Cooper said: ‘I was in Hong Kong and became friendly with a guy who knew a wholesaler who I could get a good price on a nice watch from for my 21st birthday.

‘I spent £35 on it, which considering my weekly wage was £10, was quite a lot, but I’m very glad I held on to it for all these years now.

‘I wore it while sailing dinghys until about 1983 so it did get bashed about a bit. I decided then to switch it for a cheap Casio and tuck the Speedmaster away safely in a drawer.

‘I would sometimes glance through the windows of watch shops to look at Speedmasters and over time I realised the ones on sale were slightly different to mine.

‘Last year, I finally did a bit of research and found out its red hand is very rare, which prompted me to write in to Antiques Roadshow about it.

‘I didn’t expect to hear anything back but they were interested and we filmed the piece. I was stunned to find out how valuable it was.

‘I could have kept hold of it as a heirloom but it is so expensive to insure I decided to sell it so I can treat my family.’

Mr Cooper, from Havant, Hampshire, sold it for £31,000 with auction house Gardiner Houlgate.

Auctioneer David Hare said: ‘The Ultraman is an extremely rare version of the more common Speedmaster made famous by Neil Armstrong wearing one on the Moon.

‘The only difference is that it has a very rare red/orange second hand and was made in limited numbers only in 1968.

‘The Ultraman featured in a Japanese TV series a few years later, which is how it has come to be known by this name.

‘These watches are extremely scarce and I only know of a couple of examples which have been sold at auction in recent years.’